


Lost My Way

by Iron_Eirlyssa (Eirlyssa)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternative Universe - FBI, Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Falling In Love, Hurt Bucky Barnes, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Non-Consensual Body Modification, POV Bucky Barnes, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Tony Stark, Sort Of, Teamwork, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Winteriron Holiday Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22021006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa/pseuds/Iron_Eirlyssa
Summary: Special Agent Bucky Barnes of the Supernatural Investigation Unit preferred to work alone. And he wasgoodat it, as his solve rate could attest. So he was highly displeased to find himself assigned a partner, despite his wishes, especially the son of Senator Howard Stark. Except as time went on and he got to know his partner better, Bucky started to find out there was far more to Tony Stark than just that, and this partnership might just end up being the best thing for both of them.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Comments: 18
Kudos: 278
Collections: 2019 WinterIron_Holiday_Exchange





	1. Tried my best to be guarded

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mistrstank (dreamingdarkly)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingdarkly/gifts).



> I will be honest, I was absolutely _elated_ when I saw I had the lovely [Misty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingdarkly/pseuds/mistrstank) as my recipient. And then I started writing, and it got longer and longer, and... Well, here's the end result!!
> 
> A story based off the following prompt: _FBI AU - Bucky is almost legendary in the FBI, with one of the highest case closure records around. He's driven and completely focused on his career. If you want the bad guys caught, you give the case to Bucky. His life couldn't be better, until he's abruptly assigned a new partner. Tony, who at first glance seems flighty and immature and reckless. If his father wasn't a senator, Bucky would drop him off the nearest bridge and be done with it. Of course, appearances and first impressions are deceiving, and there's far more to Bucky's new partner than he suspects._
> 
> Except in the other prompts, I noticed some strong supernatural elements, so I decided to incorporate that. I can't say it made the story easier to write, but it was certainly fun!! The subject matter did mean there were some more graphic subjects in the story, though I've tried to be tasteful and not go into too much detail. I've warned for the graphic violence mostly to be sure this wouldn't be read by anyone who isn't okay with it.
> 
> Story and chapter titles are all quotes from "[Broken](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6cdPeYJh0s)" by Lifehouse.
> 
> Much love to you Misty, and I hope you like it 💙 💙 💙 As for anyone else reading this, I hope you like it too!

The only reason Bucky wasn’t currently yelling at Fury was the fact that doing so was pretty much tantamount to committing suicide.

After everything that had happened with Rumlow, he had made it _very_ clear that he would be working without a partner from then on, and his boss had respected that so far. And Bucky had done great on his own, really - despite everything, his solving rate was one of the best in the entire Bureau, let alone the Supernatural Investigation Unit he worked for, and it had gotten him a well-deserved reputation.

So he didn’t know why he was suddenly being assigned a partner, and he sure as hell wasn’t happy about it - just the thought of it was getting his hackles up. But he couldn’t go around yelling at Fury, so he just took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice as even as possible. “I thought we agreed that I was doing fine without a partner.”

“You are.” Oddly, Fury looked no happier about this than Bucky was. It helped calm some of his anger. “But I wasn’t left with much of a choice about this.”

“How so, sir?”

“Your new partner was assigned by Carter herself.” And yeah, that made sense. As much as most of them viewed Fury as all-powerful and always in control, there were a few people who ranked above him still, and Margaret Carter was one of the only ones who could actually make him do something he didn’t want to. “Transferring from Los Angeles - according to her, he’s got all the qualifications.”

What didn’t make as much sense was that Carter didn’t usually do something for no reason, though. “So who is this person?”

“Anthony Stark,” Fury told him, voice unimpressed. Bucky knew the name - Howard Stark was famous, after all, though not always for all the right reasons. “Senator Stark’s son and, apparently, Carter’s godson.”

Blatant favoritism, then. A rich, privileged kid that wanted to play agent and ride along on someone else’s coattails. Quite possibly drawn in by the thrill of the supernatural elements of the job, which tended to attract the kinds of people that really shouldn’t be doing the job in the first place.

It wasn’t the best first impression, and it got even worse when he first met Stark himself. There was an easy grin on his face that made it seem like he wasn’t even attempting to take this seriously, his beard was shaved into some ridiculous shape, and from a single glance Bucky could tell that, despite the fact that the Bureau paid fairly well, the perfectly tailored suit Stark was wearing probably cost more than half of Bucky’s own wardrobe, if not more.

Oddly, despite the fact that all SIU agents were required to wear a focus medallion to help them with the supernatural aspects of the job, Bucky couldn’t see any traces of a chain around Stark’s neck that usually indicated the presence of one.

“You must be my partner,” Stark told him, sounding far happier about it than he had any right to be. He didn’t stick his hand out, which was probably for the better - Bucky kind of wanted to crush it. “Nice to meet you.”

He’d be lying if he said the feeling was mutual, and so he didn’t. Instead, he just nodded at Stark. “Barnes,” he introduced himself curtly, not even remotely interested in being on first-name basis with his new (and hopefully _very_ temporary) partner. Ideally, the guy would give up on the job as soon as possible so Bucky could go on doing what he needed to, instead of babysitting a rookie.

It was just his luck that, rather than some run-of-the-mill abuse of supernatural powers, a case landed in their laps that was _exactly_ the kind of thing the thrill-seekers wanted to see.

One of the cops had called in a murder with suspected supernatural elements, and before Bucky could even start wondering if outright murder was really something they wanted to start a new team on, they’d been sent off to investigate.

Sitting beside him in the car, Stark was almost vibrating, and it wasn’t hard to tell the guy was utterly _thrilled_ to have an exciting case to work on. It showed very little regard for the victim, and it soured Bucky’s opinion even further. The only thing that allowed him to resist opening the door and throwing Stark out on the street was the fact that the guy actually remained silent, no matter how obvious it was that he wanted to ramble.

No doubt he’d figured out Bucky wasn’t too fond of him - it couldn’t have been hard to miss.

The crime scene had been cordoned off already, and some cops were keeping bystanders away. Not wanting to waste time, Bucky made sure to alert the officers to their presence, getting an affirming wave in return. They swiftly informed him that only one of them had been on the scene, to confirm that the victim was dead and to notice that it was probably a supernatural case, before they’d been called in.

Since Fury had told him Stark had gotten all of his qualifications, Bucky didn’t bother explaining what would be happening next. “Ready?” he asked, hardly even waiting for Stark’s nod before touching his focus medallion, closing his eyes and transferring over to the astral plane. The protections on the car would keep his body safe.

Although he hadn’t seen any signs of Stark owning a medallion so far, the man was standing beside him in moments, following him as he headed onto the scene and looking around attentively.

A few things jumped out at him immediately, and he walked over to where the body was lying, propped against a wall.

There was something decidedly off about this victim, for all that it _looked_ like a vampire had simply drank too deeply while feeding. If a vampire killed their meal on purpose, it tended to be a lot more subtle than this. If they did so by accident, it tended to be, well… gory.

“What do you think?” he asked Stark. Bucky wasn’t ashamed to admit it was a test of sorts, to see if he had any idea at all what the job was about.

Stark looked at the victim, assessing, glancing around the crime scene as well. “Looks like either a cover-up or a frame job - and I’m guessing the second, from the amount of ‘evidence’ scattered around here.” He nodded at a security camera a bit down the street. “How much do you want to bet they put zero effort into avoiding being seen?”

“I don’t bet,” Bucky told him curtly, though he did have to agree with Stark - this all looked far too consciously done. Damn, but he hated frame jobs. They brought back too many memories.

By his side, Stark just appeared to shrug off Bucky’s harshness, moving around the scene. Bucky had no idea what he was observing, but Stark hummed thoughtfully a few times before heading back over to where he was standing. Despite the fact that he hadn’t really given Bucky much trouble so far, he couldn’t help the unkind thought that he was just trying to show off and pretend he knew more than he actually did.

With a final glance around, Bucky turned back to the street, where he could see the car holding their semi-conscious bodies. “I’ve seen enough - meet you in the car.”

Before Stark could even reply, he was back in his body, pulling his hand away from his focus medallion. A quick look beside him confirmed his earlier suspicion - Stark didn’t appear to be holding one of the traditional medallions all supernatural law enforcement agents had to carry around, instead looking as though he was sleeping.

When his eyes started flickering open, Bucky looked away and over to where the camera was hanging. “Let’s go see what that registered.”

As the crime scene technicians entered the scene, the two of them headed off to see what clues might have been left in the surrounding area, Bucky trying his hardest to ignore the nervous energy Stark seemed to be vibrating with. He could already tell it was going to be one of the most annoying things about his new ‘partner’.

The owner of the shop that owned the camera was incredibly helpful, meaning the video was easy enough to acquire, and they headed back to the headquarters in order to look at it, as well as wait for the results of whatever traces and clues the csi team had found on the scene.

“Looks like he was following the victim,” Stark murmured. Their vampire, or the one impersonating him, was carrying a fairly large bag that probably contained whatever he’d used to fake the murder. “And a very clear shot of the face, too - how lucky.”

Bucky just hummed noncommittally, trying to see what he could figure out from the images. He _really_ wished Stark would just give up on this, or find himself another partner. Since Rumlow, he’d gotten used to working alone, figuring things out in his mind and approaching a case however he wanted to. Now there was someone else, _talking_ , and he would need to communicate plans and ideas.

Maybe Stark would mess up somewhere, and he’d be able to request that the guy be moved elsewhere.

“Found him.” Stark turned his screen, showing the registration of one Lucian Albescu in the supernatural database. A quick glance at his information showed that he was originally from Romania, over three centuries old, and had moved to the United States nearly a century ago. He was currently a professor, teaching courses on history and supernatural beings at Columbia University and CUNY.

There was no way a vampire that old would have made the sorts of mistakes they’d seen at the crime scene, and yet, the face showing up on the camera images appeared identical. “Shapeshifter?” It looked _very_ realistic, but Bucky wasn’t quite sure. There were far, far better ways for shapeshifters to commit murders.

Stark hummed, replaying the fragment again. And again. The third time, he paused it. “It’s a photostatic veil,” he asserted, pointing to the edges of the faces. “Meaning they’re rich enough to get one, but from the way it’s just the tiniest bit off, not the highest quality.”

If he squinted, Bucky could see where Stark got the idea. He had to admit, though, if only to himself, that he probably wouldn’t have seen it. The veils were relatively new, and hardly anyone except top agents in the government used them. Which was raising some concerns about the actual identity of their murderer.

“We’ll visit when the sun sets,” he told Stark. It would give the crime scene technicians some time to get initial results, which would strengthen their case. He hated having to communicate his plans, hated the entire fact that he was forced into having another partner, hated that their first case was a likely frame-job, of all possible crimes. “Let’s allow him to believe we suspect him at first - see what he has to say to that.”

Rather than argue, Stark just nodded and turned back to his computer. Bucky was aware he was being unfair to the other man, but he just couldn’t help himself - no matter what Stark did, whether he argued or went along with things, whether he came up with ideas or just let Bucky do everything his own way, it was bound to rub him the wrong way just because Bucky didn’t want a new partner, let alone the spoiled son of a _Senator_.

He spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to calm himself, well-aware that he actually had to attempt to work together.

By the time evening fell, they at least knew the identity of their victim - one Ethan Woods. So far, they knew he’d been a student of Albescu’s some years ago, though he’d gone off the radar since then. Stark was looking into that. CSI had also confirmed traces of Albescu’s presence in the alley that both of them eyed rather critically. It did bring up the question of how one of the vampire’s family cufflinks could have fallen into the possession of their actual killer, though.

Driving up to the Albescu residence, Bucky couldn’t bring himself to be surprised at its size. Vampires had a tendency to go for extremes and, as a professor, he hadn’t expected Albescu to fall on the more feral side of the options. It still didn’t ease his distaste, though.

The door was opened by a girl of maybe twenty - too young to be turned, though the bite mark on her neck made it obvious she and Albescu had some sort of agreement going on. He held up his badge, paying little attention to Stark doing the same beside him. “Special Agents Barnes and Stark, with the Supernatural Investigation Unit. We’re here to see Professor Albescu about a case.”

Her eyes widened, but she opened the door wider. “Of course - please come in. I’ll let him know you’re here, if you wouldn’t mind waiting in the parlor?”

Over the years, Bucky had learned to remain still - it often worried people far more than movement did, however aggressive. Stark, on the other hand, moved about the room, poking around the books that were there and assessing some of the art on the walls. No doubt, considering his own origins, inspecting the other’s wealth and comparing it to his father’s.

When the girl came back, she was followed by a tall man that looked to be around his mid-thirties, though Bucky was well-aware he wasn’t. “Thank you, Sienna. If you could get us something to drink?” the vampire nodded at the girl, smiling faintly. From the fondness with which he spoke to her, Bucky estimated she was more to him than just a servant, though he wasn’t quite sure what, exactly.

“Now, Special Agents, how may I help you?” He didn’t appear worried at all, and Bucky had read that he’d helped out with some investigations a few decades ago, when the SIU had been less well-developed and trained.

“Your name has come up in a murder investigation, Professor,” he told the vampire neutrally. “As a possible suspect.”

Despite being several centuries old, Albescu couldn’t quite hide the confused frown. “Wait, that’s… There must be some mistake, there?” He still didn’t seem too concerned.

“We have images of you following the victim to the alley where he was found, as well as fingerprints that have been identified as yours. Not to mention there’s this.” He pulled out the bag containing the cufflink and, upon examining it closer, Albescu finally appeared to understand the seriousness of the situation.

“That… It looks like mine, but… My cufflinks are upstairs - I never wear them except on special occasions,” he argued.

“Such as a murder?” Stark asked, though it was obvious his heart wasn’t in it.

By now, Albescu didn’t seem to notice. “No! I never… I only drink artificial or donated blood, and I _never_ take too much. I don’t understand how…”

Pulling out the picture of Ethan Woods that he’d brought, Bucky turned it to face Albescu. “Do you know this man?” It was a few years old, but still quite clearly the same man whose body they had found that morning.

The vampire was stunned again upon seeing the picture. “I… yes. He was a student of mine about… seven years ago? Maybe eight, I can’t be certain. Woods, if I recall correctly, though I wouldn’t know his first name. Good student, very interested. But I wouldn’t have any reason to harm him.”

“From what we found,” Stark started, “he remained interested in vampires - he regularly frequented supernatural nightclubs in search of a vampire willing to change him. He pretty much disappeared a few years ago, except the occasional complaint of a man fitting his description stalking vampires and demanding that they change him. One or two times, he even threatened his targets. So think carefully - are you _sure_ you don’t have a reason to harm him?”

“I’m very sure,” Albescu confirmed, and he sounded utterly certain. “I swear I haven’t seen him since he was my student, and I certainly didn’t kill him.”

Just as he was speaking, the door opened behind him to let in the girl, who gasped. “Wait, what? Professor Albescu wouldn’t!”

“Easy,” he told the girl, who calmed down enough to at least put down the tray that she had brought into the room. “I didn’t, but I cannot deny that evidence _does_ seem to point in my direction.” He was frowning, though he appeared to have calmed down enough to think about the entire situation more rationally.

“So how would you explain this, then?” Bucky asked him, voice still neutral.

“All things considered, it looks rather like someone is trying to make it appear as though I killed… Mr. Woods.” He sighed heavily, looking troubled. “It’s just… he was a _very_ promising student - smart, dedicated. I wish I’d noticed what appears to be a rather troubling fixation…”

“This is a lot of effort to frame someone, Professor Albescu,” Bucky remarked. “Do you have enemies willing to go to these lengths?”

Albescu himself appeared to be in deep thought, and Sienna had sat down beside him, frowning. “I… I wish I could think of anyone, but… I’m not aware of anyone like that. It appears rather more targeted than anyone simply disliking vampires would do.”

Stark hummed beside him. Bucky’s usual way of going about a situation like this would be to keep silent until the other came up with something, but even one day of working with Stark had taught him that his new ‘partner’ wasn’t too great with silences. Even just while working at his computer, Stark muttered things to himself occasionally.

“What’s your security like around here?”

“Security?”

“If you were framed,” Stark continued, sticking to the scepticism Bucky had encouraged, “then the one who framed you must have gotten your cufflink somehow. So would just anyone be able to walk in here and steal it, or did they have to put in effort for that as well?”

As Albescu walked Stark through his security - all of which was rather impressive, Bucky had to admit - he observed both the vampire and the girl sitting beside him.

While he could understand being upset that her… employer? mentor? teacher?... was being accused of murdering someone, there appeared to be more to the frown on Sienna’s face.

“So who has been allowed into the mansion between the last time you wore your cufflinks and last night?” Stark continued his line of questioning, making notes on everything Albescu was telling him.

“Three of my dear friends, and the two ladies who clean the mansion. No one, other than that, and I am certain that none of them would steal anything of mine, let alone try to frame me for murder.” Stark insisted on the names regardless, and despite his hesitance, Albescu allowed him to note them down.

“Who else, miss?” Bucky interrupted neutrally, attention focused on Sienna.

She startled, looking up at him with wide eyes. For some reason, she appeared scared.

Albescu looked down at her, and though he no doubt noticed the exact same look on her face, he didn’t seem angry. “There was someone else?”

“It… I’m really sorry, Professor,” she told him, looking up at him pleadingly. When he assured her that it was alright, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, she took a deep breath and turned back to Bucky and Stark. “I spend a lot of time here, helping out the Professor. And usually he escorts me home, to make sure I get there safely. But there’s been a few times where I’ve asked my brother to pick me up, and sometimes he arrives so early that there’s still things I need to finish. I just thought it was because he wanted me out of here as soon as possible.”

“And he would be capable of this?” Bucky asked them.

“Alex… He does not approve of me,” Albescu admitted. “He does not like that Sienna spends time with me, and he vehemently objects to the idea that, when she turns twenty-five, she would like to be turned. Not to mention he seems to be under the impression that we are… romantically involved.”

There was a faint expression of distaste on Albescu’s face, but Bucky still felt the need to ask. “But there isn’t?”

“While I admire Sienna, and I would be honored to turn her when she is old enough, I am… _far_ older than she is. I am certainly not interested in her romantically.”

“And I’ve _told_ him that,” Sienna exclaimed, her frustration obvious. “But it’s like he doesn’t listen, and he just… I don’t want to believe he could, but… I know he doesn’t like the Professor, and he definitely doesn’t want me to become a vampire.” By now, she just appeared incredibly sad.

“I didn’t think he disliked me this much, though…” Albescu admitted.

“We’ll be sure to look into it carefully,” Bucky told them. It could be difficult to imagine anyone you cared about being capable of something like murder, but his gut told him that Alex was their best suspect.

Stark noted down Alex’s full name and address, which would be their next stop, and Bucky supposed at least that was one advantage to having a partner - he no longer had to keep track of all of that kind of information himself. Not to mention the fact that Stark apparently had no trouble guiding the car to the location.

Probably glad for the excuse to be able to talk instead of having to remain silent, Bucky scoffed mentally.

He wasn’t at all surprised when his gut instinct turned out to be correct and Alex Collins attempted to flee down the fire escape the moment he saw them. With a sigh, Bucky nodded for Stark to go after him, which he fortunately did without asking any further questions. That left Bucky to rush down the regular stairs, meeting Collins at the bottom of the fire escape.

Later investigation turned up the bag that he’d brought along, as well as the photostatic veil and the complicated contraption he’d used to drain Woods of his blood without leaving it around. The blood itself, he ended up confessing, he’d flushed down the toilet.

It was, in all, an easier case than Bucky had anticipated, and the exact thing he was hesitant about with a rookie. Because a successful case, involving a murder, that was finished quickly and tied up neatly with a figurative bow… It was exactly the kind of thing that would keep a thrill-seeking rookie going, instead of giving up like he should. Like Bucky still couldn’t help but wish he would, despite the way working together hadn’t altogether been as awful as he’d expected it would be.

Still, he anticipated it might take a while to get rid of Stark and be able to work on his own again, like he still wanted to. Longer than he was comfortable with, anyway.

With a deep sigh, Bucky resigned himself to dealing with Stark at least a little longer.


	2. The broken locks were a warning

Some weeks had passed since Bucky had been assigned Stark as a partner, and while he still couldn't say he was _happy_ about it, at least he could admit that there were some advantages. On his good days, he didn’t even quite dislike Stark anymore.

While Bucky himself had a tendency of being cold and reserved, to the point where his colleagues had nicknamed him ‘Winter’, Stark didn't have the same problem. Easygoing and charismatic, he had no trouble talking to people.

Part of Bucky felt jealous, especially since he'd been very similar before... well, before everything with Rumlow had happened. Another part felt resentful, mentally scoffing that he'd probably learned that from his Senator daddy. Mostly, though, he was practical enough to know it could be useful in solving their cases, and so he kept his reservations to himself.

It also helped that Stark was _really_ good with technology, which was very helpful in their line of work.

Overall, while he was still anything but happy with the situation, he wasn't so stubborn that he couldn't see that there were some advantages, too.

"Yo, Barnes - got another case for you. Some cop called Rollins called it in, asked for you specifically." The name didn't sound familiar, but that didn't always mean a lot. Even without knowing people personally, he had a reputation.

"Any specifics?"

"Suspicious death, looks like it could be supernatural. Other than that, just the location - some spot in Harriman State Park."

Which was how he and Stark ended up heading out of the city, to some spot so isolated they’d gotten coordinates instead of an address. It was more time than he really wanted to spend in a car with anyone, but unfortunately it wasn't much of a choice.

Of course, Stark was already all but vibrating in the passenger seat, though he managed to keep silent as usual.

Honestly, Bucky wondered when he'd just give up and get Carter to assign him another partner that would be a bit more similar. It seemed more than obvious that they didn't make for a great partnership, and despite his initial misgivings, Bucky could admit the guy wasn't completely useless. He wasn't in this purely so Bucky could do the work and Stark could get the glory.

That still left the question of why he’d been stuck with him in the first place, though.

As they headed further into the Park, the roads got rougher and rougher. Still, Bucky had been taught never to leave the car when entering the astral plane, so he gritted his teeth and navigated the wilderness the best he could.

“Something feels… _off_ ,” Stark muttered, looking at the forest around them.

It took effort not to scoff, because the first thought that crossed Bucky’s mind was ‘city boy not used to the woods’. And while that might be a part of it, it wasn’t all. “Usually the case when there’s been a murder,” he said instead, because that was his experience. Even in the busy city, with life and noise all around, there was usually an eerie stillness around a place where someone had just died.

Stark just hummed, though he didn’t stop frowning and looking around warily. Bucky ignored him, partially out of necessity and partially because this was their _job_ , after all, and that included creepy cases.

When they finally reached the spot Officer Rollins had called in, the sun was starting to sink behind the horizon. With the trees obscuring it, night appeared to already have fallen in the forest. It made it difficult to spot the officer, though he helped out by shining a torch to light the way to him.

Rolling down the window, Bucky nodded at him. “What’d you find?”

“Some campers have gone missing in the past two weeks, and then we found, well…” Rollins grimaced. “One of the missing guys, or at least what’s left of him. The only wild animal that could do a thing like that ‘round here is a coyote, and… You’ll see when you see the body. But I don’t think that was coyotes.”

“What way are we headed?”

“About two-hundred yards over that way.” He motioned a bit farther north, where their headlights were shining. The trees stopped the light before it even got a hundred yards. “I taped it off, but… I gotta be honest with you, I couldn’t stay ‘round him for too long. Never seen a thing like that.”

Bucky nodded. “Alright, we’ll be back in about ten minutes. Keep an eye out.”

He waited for Rollins to nod as well before pulling up the window again to make sure the car was as protected as possible. Then, before a heavily frowning Stark could speak up, he said “let’s go” and touched his medallion to head over to the astral plane. And despite his hesitation, his ‘partner’ was there soon after, though he didn’t look much happier still.

The darkness wasn’t as bothersome now, a soft greyish-blue glow covering everything and making it easier to cross the uneven ground.

When they found their victim, Bucky had to swallow a bit. A quick glance to the side confirmed that Stark was shocked as well, though fortunately he didn’t look like he was about to throw up. Considering how little control they had over their actual bodies while on the astral plane, that tended to be problematic.

“This wasn’t coyotes.” There was no way they would leave their victims like this - even most supernatural creatures would have more respect for their prey. So either something utterly feral, or something utterly sadistic.

Or both.

Looking around the area, he tried to figure out how the body had gotten here. If he had been missing before, then why would his murderer bring him to this place? It wasn’t a road, but it wasn’t as far away from one as possible, either. So something about the location was meaningful, despite the fact that it looked very similar to the woods all around them.

Stepping closer to the body itself, he threw a quick glance over at Stark. It didn’t surprise him too much to find the other man pretty far away from him, inspecting the trees for traces. He couldn’t even quite blame him, considering the gruesomeness of the scene.

It didn’t make sense upon first look. He’d had quite a bit of experience with murder cases, and he’d seen quite a range - calculation, viciousness, even combinations of the two where someone wanted to make a murder appear planned or unplanned. This wasn’t like any of those. There was rage, as well as calculation. Desperation as well as cold malice.

Then, a shiver running down his spine, Bucky realized what this was.

A warning. A _threat_.

The moment comprehension hit him, he could hear Stark gasping behind him. “ _Barnes_ \- !”

He didn’t have time to ask what he’d found. He didn’t have time to turn to see him. He didn’t have time to warn Stark about his own realization.

Instead, excruciating pain filled him when he snapped back to his own body far too quickly. There was no way he could have stopped himself from screaming in agony at the way his entire left side felt like it had been ripped to pieces. He couldn’t think through the pain, couldn’t understand what was going on, couldn’t comprehend the flashes of awareness that felt like they were an eternity away.

A cry from his right - Stark, was he hurt as well?

A flash of blue light, and then there was a scream on his left side, and the pain lessened just a little.

A snarl, and more blue lights, and it seemed to go on forever. Then, suddenly, there was a shriek that sounded inhuman and that cut off abruptly.

A mutter at his left side. “I’m so sorry, Barnes, I have to… It’s the only way.”

And then, slowly but surely, the pain at his left started to fade. A soft moan escaped him as he finally felt like he could breathe again, exhaustion crashing over him. He tried to force himself to stay awake, stay as aware as possible in case the danger wasn’t over yet, but it quickly turned out to be impossible. Before he could even start to make sense of anything that had happened, he felt himself fade out of consciousness.

Returning to awareness was slow. The pain hit him first - a dull, throbbing ache originating from his left shoulder.

Biting back the moan that wanted to escape, he tried to assess his situation. He was lying down, and there was a smell of antiseptics, but it wasn’t prevalent enough to be a hospital. And when he opened his eyes and looked around, he saw it was one of the medical vans the SIU had available for first aid in case of supernatural injuries.

His thoughts were sluggish, and it took him longer than it should have to realize that Fury shouldn't be there, sitting in the corner. But since he was, something was clearly very, _very_ wrong.

"What happened?" He could hear how hoarse he sounded, and he wondered how much he'd screamed.

"A trap is what happened." Anyone who didn't know him probably wouldn't have thought anything unusual was going on, but Bucky could tell he was _pissed_. Fury took the well-being of his employees very seriously.

Slowly, Bucky was starting to put events together. "Rollins?"

"Lured you here and, when you were investigating on the astral plane, he opened your car door. This was targeted at you."

As reluctant as he was to ask, he had to know. “What… What was it? And what happened to me? And Stark?” He wasn’t sure about anything that had happened, but from the flashes he _could_ remember, he suspected he might owe Stark his life.

“Well, you got yourself a nice new accessory, courtesy of Stark. He promised to explain later, but…” Fury didn’t look happy with that, but the fact that he’d allowed it was significant. “What I know so far is that you were attacked by a wendigo, which _shouldn’t be this far south_ , so that’s suspicious. It attacked through your side door, and your arm was… I’m not sure exactly how bad it was, but from the blood in the car, it’s obvious it was pretty damn severe.”

Despite knowing he would have to eventually, Bucky was afraid to look. He knew it had been pretty severe, wondered if there was anything left at all, except the way Fury was speaking about it…

His breath caught in his chest, because where he’d been expecting his arm to have been torn to ribbons, or to have been gone entirely, instead his arm was _silver_. Silver, made up of various plates so it could be moved, and was that…? He turned the arm, and although it throbbed, it felt more bruised than anything else. And there it was, on his shoulder - the red star that had been in the middle of his focus medallion - the medallion he noticed he was no longer wearing.

“What the _hell_?” he blurted out, astonished.

“Stark mentioned he’d made it out of your medallion, though he didn’t tell us _how_.”

The longer he was awake again, the more… _normal_ he felt. He noticed the blood transfusion bag attached to his arm was almost empty, so he knew, technically, he hadn’t been well off, but… He was damn sure he wasn’t feeling as bad as he should.

With some careful questioning, he found out that it was some hours later, and they were actually still in the State Park. Stark had called in, informing them they’d been attacked by a wendigo and they needed plenty of reinforcements and one of the medical vans, because Bucky’d been hurt and unconscious. The others had come in, expecting the worst, only to find the wendigo’s smoldering corpse some distance from the car and the vehicle itself surrounded by a protective circle of Ojibwe words drawn by Stark. Oh, and Bucky with an arm that didn’t look normal anymore.

“I wanna see him,” Bucky told Fury, starting to sit up slowly. As much as he wanted to jump up and get out, he knew the slightest sign of dizziness or other forms of weakness meant he would be forced to stay in the van until they were ready to head out.

Fury looked at him, assessing. He must have seen what he needed to, though, because he nodded. “Bring the rest of that blood bag with you, though.”

Despite the fact that it was definitely night by now, there were enough lights set up that Bucky could easily see all of the others milling around. Jane was working on the car, and the sight of the blood-splattered windows made Bucky swallow. A bit further, one of her CSI-teammates was kneeling beside a lump that Bucky suspected was the wendigo. In the shine of the flashlight Bruce was shining on it, its skin appeared almost translucent, though there were some burned spots on it.

He couldn’t see Stark at all, initially. It didn’t help that there were quite a lot of trees, even with the light, or that Stark himself was, well… not the tallest.

It was only when he saw a flash of Natasha’s red hair that he noticed Stark, half-hidden behind her teammate Clint and talking to them. They were on the edges of the lights, the forest looming dark behind them.

As he walked over to them, Fury following close behind, he couldn’t help but notice that Stark looked exhausted. It might not have been immediately noticeable to anyone else, but he’d been inspecting the other closely for any excuse to request that their partnership be dissolved and he instantly noticed the slight signs of strain around Stark’s eyes and mouth.

Stark spotted their approach and, for one heart-stopping fraction of a moment, a brilliant, relieved smile brightened up his face and eyes. Then, so soon Bucky could almost think he’d imagined it, he schooled his face back to the professionally distant smile he’d been wearing around Bucky the entire time.

Guiltily, Bucky realized he hadn’t been all that concerned about what Stark thought about him or their partnership - he’d been too busy being angry that he was forced to take a partner at all, and he’d taken that out on Stark without a second thought.

Which, among other things, had led to him utterly disregarding Stark’s discomfort as they drove straight into a trap.

“You alright?” As much as he wanted to know everything, since Fury hadn’t been able to tell him too many of the details since he didn’t yet know them himself, that wasn’t the most important thing at the moment.

Hell, they’d both just nearly _died_. As much of an ass as he’d been to Stark, he’d never actually want him gone.

Considering the way he’d been acting during their ‘partnership’, though, Bucky figured he deserved the momentary flash of surprise in Stark’s eyes. “I’m fine,” he said, and he sounded like he actually believed it. Then he looked briefly over at Bucky’s left arm with what seemed like a combination of concern and assessment. “You?”

“Hurts less than I’d been expecting,” Bucky admitted. As time passed, the throbbing pain was starting to fade to a faint ache.

“Yeah, it’s…” Stark blushed faintly, averting his eyes to the dark forest. “It might take a while to get used to… Well, to the way it looks. But the pain should be about the same as a muscle ache, and it should be gone in a few days.”

That was a pretty accurate description, and Bucky honestly believed him. “What’d you do?”

As much as he tried to keep his voice non-accusatory, he could see the way Stark tensed up a little, a wary look entering his eyes. “I… It’s a thing I can do. Manipulate metals. Some are easier than others, but silver is one of the easiest, especially because… Well, I used your focus medallion, and you’re already connected to it to some extent, so it was very willing to do what I asked of it. Which was to cover… what was left of your arm. And to function as one. I can check it later if you want me to, because I was kind of in a rush before, but there might be some improvements I can make.”

There were _so many questions_ just begging to be asked about this skill, but Bucky could see that Stark was uncomfortable.

So, figuring that he could ask for improvements later and ask more questions then if he needed to, Bucky just nodded. There was still a lot more he wanted to know, after all. “So what’d you find out so far about this whole trap?”

“That it took a _lot_ of effort,” Clint remarked. “Like, someone _really_ wanted you dead, in a _really_ specific way, and they were willing to go through just about any trouble for that.”

“Wendigos aren’t usually this far south, or east. Hell, even in the great lake area, they’re not common.”

“And that’s where the effort came in,” Natasha agreed. She pointed at the ground, and Bucky could see some sort of writing there. “Ojibwe - one of the few languages still existing that has protective spells that work on wendigos. There’s a trail heading northwest lined with them. Some of the others are following it, but they still haven’t found the end of it, only a few lines across that would have made sure the wendigo couldn’t go back the way it came. They _corralled_ it here.”

“What the hell?” It at least explained the state of the victim they’d found earlier. Antagonizing one of the most vicious creatures out there could have easily led to something like that. But the time that would have taken, the _huge_ amount of work... “That’s… That’s _insane_. How the hell did they manage that without alerting the FBI a wendigo was on the move?”

“It’s one of the things we’re definitely going to look into,” Fury assured all of them, his one eye narrowed. Crossing state lines was no excuse.

Stark hummed, looking pensive. “Might also want to see if anyone actually went missing here.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking the victim was unrecognizable, and I’m thinking this kind of targeted effort, especially with a creature like a wendigo, must have gone wrong _somewhere_ ,” Stark explained. “Even if they managed to find one living pretty far south, they must have been setting this up for 200 miles at the very least - in a straight line, which probably was impossible if they wanted to avoid detection.”

“You’re thinking the victim might be one of the people who set this up in the first place,” Fury concluded.

“It’s not impossible.” Natasha nodded at Stark. It was strange to see the way she was relatively at ease around him, considering it tended to take her a long time to warm up to new people. “It’s worth a background check after we ID him, at least.”

“ _Do_ we have any idea who’d go to these rather extreme lengths to kill you?” Clint asked Bucky.

Before Bucky could even start answering the question, Stark shook his head. “Not just to kill him. If they’d wanted him dead, it would have been far easier to just open the car door and slit your throat - no offense.” Bucky nodded for him to continue, understanding where he was coming from. “This was elaborate, _extremely_ unnecessarily so. It’s more like someone’s overly excessive revenge fantasy that they actually had the insanity and the means to carry out.”

Unfortunately, he was right. And despite the fact that Bucky was one of the best agents in the Bureau, and had exposed hundreds of crimes committed by hundreds of supernatural creatures, this entire plan was too intricate for most of them. Most of them, except…

“HYDRA,” Fury growled, and if he’d appeared angry before, it was nothing compared to now.

Both Natasha and Clint nodded understandingly - only Stark appeared to be clueless, though he hid it very well. It was a face Bucky had seen a few times before, and he knew that Stark would try to find out as much as possible the moment he had time to, considering no one was likely to tell him.

And of course, Bucky had been enough of an asshole that there was no way he’d outright ask.

“It’s a long story,” he told Stark. Long, and one he didn’t particularly want to relive. But considering what had just happened, he didn’t think there was really a way around it, either way. And with the way Bucky had acted towards him, Stark deserved an explanation as well as an apology. “I’ll explain it on the way back, alright? After we’re done here.”

Really, it was Bucky’s own fault that Stark kept looking surprised anytime he acted somewhat decently.

He hoped he’d be able to at least resolve some of that during the long car ride back. As much as Bucky still wasn’t too sure about having a partner again, he definitely hadn’t been a great one himself. He hadn’t cared at all what Stark thought, or wanted - he couldn’t even say for sure he even had any idea what Stark was actually like, rather than all the things Bucky had projected onto him. Because whatever Bucky had thought of him before, the way he’d reacted during all of this made it very clear there was a lot to him that Bucky hadn’t had the faintest idea of.

Bucky found himself wondering if there was a way to make this disaster into an actual partnership, and if Stark would even want to after everything that had happened.

To his own surprise, he realized that he actually wanted to try.


	3. In the pain there is healing

It had been at the beginning of his career with the SIU, Bucky explained. Brock Rumlow had been his first partner, and they’d seemed to work well together. They’d had a way of working that was similar but not identical, which meant they did great at making sure as much as possible was covered.

For a long time, it had gone well enough. They’d been partners for over four years when there had been a case, and a piece of evidence that Bucky had noticed while on the astral plane suddenly ended up being gone when he looked at the CSI reports.

Looking back, he was still grateful he hadn’t followed his first inclination and discussed it with Rumlow, because who knows what might have happened. He had initially suspected one of the crime scene technicians, but he hadn’t wanted to speak up until he had some evidence to support his suspicions.

Except the more he looked, the less it looked like the technicians.

His private investigation had been what had led him to the trail of HYDRA. It wasn’t just that one case - the more he looked, the more he found, to the point where he wasn’t sure who in the SIU to trust at all anymore. Key pieces of evidence went missing occasionally - a vague comment referring to something of note in the initial crime scene report of an agent that was never followed up on, an erased line in another…

What he hadn’t realized was that his investigation had been noticed after all. And that, despite how long they’d been working together, Rumlow had no hesitation about turning on him.

Which was how Bucky found himself with a gunshot wound in his arm and suspected of attempted murder. The fact that he wasn’t dead was only due to the fact that he was on his guard at all times by then, and had seen the gun in Rumlow’s hand just in time to dive to the side.

He had seen the look in Rumlow’s eyes, had found out exactly how far HYDRA would go in order to keep from being detected, to keep from being stopped, and he knew that they would not quit until he was out of the picture and no longer able to expose them.

So he went to two of his fellow agents that he thought, _hoped_ , that he could still trust. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton had a good solving record, and there were a few instances where he had noticed they had been shifted off cases that had ended up being compromised. Reading their reports, the way both of them noticed every single detail at a crime scene, he could guess why that was.

Although he was hesitant and wary, ready to run if it turned out to be a mistake, he agreed to go with them to see their supervisor. Coulson, upon hearing everything and seeing the evidence Bucky had gathered, had taken all of them to Fury.

The man ended up more than honoring his name.

A huge purge had happened, with the entirety of the FBI investigated for any suspicious activity. As it turned out, HYDRA was an organization that helped anyone rich enough to afford them escape prosecution, either by making evidence disappear, fabricating evidence to point in another direction or, in the worst of cases, making stubborn investigating agents disappear. It had ranged from agents themselves to Alexander Pierce himself.

While it had certainly been necessary, it made work at the SIU difficult for quite a while. People suddenly lost their partners and found out that those same partners had been betraying them behind their backs at the same time. Teams were reorganized, many agents having to learn how to work with new partners while dealing with an increased caseload.

As for Bucky… he hadn’t had a partner since then. Hadn’t needed one and certainly hadn’t wanted one.

Once he was finally finished talking, silence fell in the back of the car. He couldn’t quite bring himself to look at Stark, to see his reaction to the entire story, so he kept his eyes averted to the window or the privacy screen separating them from Fury.

“Well,” Stark eventually spoke up, “that certainly explains a lot.” His voice was carefully neutral, but Bucky could still hear some of his hesitance.

That decided it. He turned to Stark, who was looking ahead at the privacy screen. Much like his voice, his face was neutral. His eyes betrayed him, though - there was something definitively sad about them, a faint hint of resignation that Bucky couldn’t help but notice. Resignation he’d put there.

“I want to apologize to you.” At that, Stark did turn to face him, frowning slightly. “I… There were reasons, but it still wasn’t fair. I judged you before I even met you, was determined to dislike you, and the way I behaved was… I haven’t been… I was so busy with not wanting a partner, with thinking about how much I disliked it all, that I wasn’t a very good partner myself. And you didn’t do anything to deserve that. So I’m sorry for being a bad partner. I would understand if you would prefer to be partnered with someone else, someone who won’t be so unfair to you, but I… If you still… If you are okay with being my partner still, I promise you I’ll try… I _want_ to try to do better. To work together.”

The first thought to come to mind when he noticed Stark’s surprise was the fact that he deserved that. He’d been awful, and now Stark did something for him and he suddenly wanted to be better, to still be partners?

Except, as it turned out, that wasn’t the part that surprised Stark.

“Honestly, you really weren’t that bad,” he spoke up, continuing before Bucky could do more than shake his head a little because _yes, he really had been_. “I mean, I could tell you didn’t like me much, but that happens more than you’d think. And despite that, you still worked with me, and you informed me about the plan and about things that you’d found out, and you listened to my suggestions, and you didn’t claim you’d done all of it on your own and I hadn’t contributed anything. So don’t… I mean, there’s no need to feel bad, is all I’m saying.”

What the actual _hell_? “Please tell me your previous partners have been fired?”

Stark looked at him, surprised. “Well, one of them quit after saying I was such a bad partner that he couldn’t do it anymore, and the two others eventually got partnered with someone else. Not sure how well that turned out for them, but by that time rumors had been spreading about me, so the decision was made to transfer me over to hopefully get a new start.”

And there, he’d gotten stuck with Bucky, who somehow managed to pass the incredibly low bar the others had set by achieving the barest scraps of human decency.

“So this means you’re not opposed to staying my partner?” Bucky asked, just to be sure. Stark still deserved the right to decide otherwise if he wanted to, even though Bucky thought he already knew the answer.

“No, of course not,” Stark told him earnestly, and what the _hell_ was Bucky’s chest doing?

“Then I’m gonna do my best to show you what it _should_ be like.” It might not be easy to overthrow some of his preconceived notions, but he was gonna try his hardest. This, the way he’d been… That wasn’t the kind of person his parents had tried to raise, and he was deeply ashamed of himself. “To start with, feel free to call me Bucky if you’d like.”

“ _Oh_.” Stark’s eyes widened in happy surprise, and Bucky absently wondered if those gold flecks had always been there. “You can call me Tony as well, if you want to. I’d… I’d like that.”

“Tony, then.” Bucky smiled at him, a bit wider when it got him a smile in return. “I look forward to working with you.”

He had to swallow at the hesitantly delighted look on Tony’s face. It’d probably take some time to get an unreserved smile, but he found himself looking forward to it, found himself wondering what it’d look like for his partner to be happy.

Hilariously, at that very moment, the thought didn’t even seem that odd. It felt like a natural progression of sorts, rather than something that was a bit more than usual to feel for your partner. He would look back at that thought later and laugh, because really, that was the moment he should have known he started falling.

That conversation ended up changing a lot of things. It took a conscious effort for Bucky to start to let go of his prejudices, and he was kind of disturbed by how easily they had come to him.

As he got to know Tony better, however, it also turned out to be incredibly easy to shake them off. Because the other man was _nothing_ like he had initially expected him to be. Money might not have ever been a thing he’d had to worry about, but he absolutely wasn’t spoiled. He might not have to work as hard as others did, might get a little restless and rambly, but that tended to be because he was astonishingly intelligent and his mind was always going a thousand miles a minute.

Bucky had always been good at solving cases, and his reluctant partnership with Tony hadn’t changed that, but now that he actually worked _with_ him instead of _beside_ him, they were just about unstoppable.

“So, natural death or not?”

“Instinct says not,” Tony answered, looking around the roof their young werewolf victim had fallen off of, according to the call to the police, “but no evidence to support it.”

“Yet,” Bucky replied, shrugging. He was also inclined to believe it wasn’t natural, but Tony was right in that there didn’t appear to be anything off. “We’ll look around for a bit more, and then try to see if we can find out how she got up here.”

“No forced entry on the access door, but that doesn’t need to say a whole lot. Not sure how great the lock is, but it should at least be enough to keep out anyone without a key unless they want to force it.”

“We’ll have to check around the residents to see how easy it is to get up here, and who knows about that. Might also matter whether she rented an apartment here or if she’s from somewhere else. Some buildings give everyone a key to the roof, in others only the supervisor has one.”

Silence fell for a bit as they looked around for any clue whatsoever. Then, Tony spoke up again. “Is it just me, or is there _nothing_?”

It could have been a statement of fact, but Bucky thought there might be more to it. “Meaning?”

“Meaning, there’s no trace of her ever being up here. No signs of a struggle, door is still locked, nothing to trip over… It could still be a suicide, of course, but I’m not sure she fell from here at all.”

They walked over to the ledge of the building, considering. Down below, they could see CSI around the victim. Their locked car, which Bucky now trusted to keep their physical bodies safe because he knew Tony had helped work on the improved security, was standing nearby. “You’re right - with the way she fell, I don’t think she’d have missed all of those balconies unless she jumped out. And if you do that, why not go a little to the left instead and not have to bother with them at all?”

Tony hummed and then, closing his eyes to focus, drifted down one balcony below.

Ever since he’d saved Bucky’s life and turned his focus medallion into an arm instead, Bucky had noticed that he had more abilities while on the astral plane. Tony had given him a lot of tips already, including some work on the ability to phase through walls, floors and ceilings. It was a work in progress still, but he’d had enough practice to follow his partner down.

“Can’t have been too low, or she wouldn’t have looked the way she did,” Tony noted as he looked around to see if there was anything of note.

“Especially as a werewolf,” Bucky agreed, quickly concluding this place didn’t look right. They might not be allowed to enter the apartments themselves, but the balconies were free game. “Let’s try one lower.”

Three balconies below, they finally found what they’d been looking for. Some of the hanging planters were askew, one of the standing ones had actually fallen over, and there were definite signs of a struggle. “Alright, let’s head out to request a search warrant for this apartment,” Bucky said, nodding at Tony. “Nice catch.”

Every time Bucky said something like that, Tony would end up blushing, which made something swoop pleasantly in Bucky’s stomach. “I mean, you’d have also figured it out.” And then he said something like that, and Bucky wanted to find all of his old partners and make their lives a living hell.

It was already better than it had been, though - the surprise on Tony’s face when Bucky had first complimented him on noticing something had been heartbreaking.

After that, it didn’t take too long to finish up the case. It helped that a lot of crime involved people who knew one another, which made them a lot easier to find. Unfortunately, it also made it all a lot sadder, and Bucky could tell Tony was having some trouble. “You alright?” he asked gently, leaning on the side of his partner’s desk.

“Yeah, I… It might sound silly, but I just wish people could be _nicer_ , you know?” Brown eyes looked up at him, almost pleading for understanding, and Bucky just about _melted_.

“I know,” he agreed softly. Reaching out, he took Tony’s hand in his, squeezing just a little.

He hadn’t thought it through when he’d done it, and for a second he worried that it was too much, that Tony would pull away and tell him he’d crossed a line. Instead, he sighed, squeezing back and leaning his forehead on Bucky’s arm in a gesture so trusting that Bucky decided then and there he would get rid of anyone who tried to hurt him.

“I just wanted to do this work to make the world a better place. And I know we’re helping, I _know_ we are. But it doesn’t always seem like enough, not with the stuff we see sometimes…”

“I wanted to do the right thing, to help people the best I could.” Ever since he’d been young, it had been one of the things Bucky had been sure he wanted. “And sometimes it _is_ discouraging to see how bad people can be, supernatural or not. But then I keep telling myself we are helping out, and we are taking those off the street, little by little. And when that doesn’t feel like enough, I go somewhere to volunteer - the animal shelter, the orphanage, the homeless shelter…”

“I… could we do that?” Tony asked, looking up at him with eyes so desolate there was no way Bucky could have refused even if he’d wanted to.

“Of course,” he agreed immediately. “I’ll make some calls, see if there’s something we can do for them.”

Odds were, any location would have had the same result. But when he saw the light come back to Tony’s eyes as he was overrun by enthusiastic dogs eager for attention, heard him laugh brightly as he tried to fend them off as they tried to lick him in the face, he realized he was lost.

He knew the smile on his face was probably unbearably sappy as he watched on, was aware that one look at him would give it all away, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

And then Tony smiled at him, adoring and ecstatic and utterly beautiful, and Bucky _knew_ this growing feeling was not one-sided.

It wasn’t anything like what he’d felt for anyone before, somehow more intense and more steady than anything he’d experienced. Part of him wanted to be scared of it, but then he looked at Tony again and he simply couldn’t.

Bucky was aware that it would be best to take this slow, to make sure it would not ruin their partnership, but he was also very certain that it would be worth it in the end. Because even though he was still getting to know Tony, was still learning more about him as they got closer, he’d only ended up becoming more infatuated with him.

Hope and excitement blooming in his chest, Bucky smiled happily.

He might not have wanted a partner at first, but he couldn’t help but be infinitely grateful that one had been forced on him nonetheless. And now he couldn’t wait to solve more cases with Tony right there beside him, bouncing ideas off one another and arguing good-naturedly and getting closer with every moment spent together.

For the first time in what felt like years of repetitive, dreary days, Bucky was looking forward to the future again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed it!!
> 
> I am aware there are a few story threads that have not yet been dealt with, because they would require quite a bit of writing I simply didn't have time for. I _am_ planning to add some more to this AU at some point, though no guarantees, so if there's any questions or if anything wasn't clear, please feel free to leave a comment here or ask me on my [Tumblr](https://eirlyssa.tumblr.com/).
> 
> And Misty, I love you loads and I hope you are happy with your present 💙 💙 💙


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